Government demands $20,000 fine against church that held worship

August 21, 2020 — WND.com reports: “Los Angeles County is moving to hold John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church in contempt of court and be fined a total of $20,000 for holding a worship service Sunday in defiance of a court order.

The church, like many across the nation, argues government officials are violating the First Amendment by restricting religious meetings while allowing similar gatherings, such as protests of the death of George Floyd.

Fox News reported L.A. County officials contend the church’s actions last Sunday constitute four separate violations of a temporary restraining order and a Court of Appeal order. The court, therefore, they say, should issue $1,000 fines for each of eight acts of alleged contempt and an additional $1,500 fine for each of eight alleged violations of court orders.

Lawyers for the church contend the county is violating the Constitution…”  (In Acts chapter 5, when Peter and the Apostles were imprisoned for preaching, the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors at night and said: Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life – Acts 5:20.  The next morning they were brought before the council where the high priest said: …Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men 5:28 & 29. 

Great persecution will soon overtake most Christians in a majority of the world. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. – Matthew 5:10 – 12; If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. – John 15:18 – 21; …When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. — Revelation 6:9: …I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. – Revelation 20:4; and Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. – Revelation 2:10.  See the next report.)

Faith Leaders: China’s Persecution of Uyghurs One of Most Egregious ‘Since Holocaust’

August 24, 2020 — Breitbart.com reports: “Dozens of prominent faith leaders have denounced China’s persecution of Uyghur Muslims as ‘one of the most egregious human tragedies since the Holocaust.’

In their strongly worded declaration, the faith leaders — who include Catholic bishops and cardinals, Protestant bishops and pastors, Buddhist leaders, Muslim Imams, and ten Jewish rabbis — underscore the evil of ‘the potential genocide of the Uyghurs and other Muslims in China’ under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

While many persecutions and mass atrocities are occurring around the world, the plight of the Uyghurs is unique, the leaders insist, and if allowed to continue with impunity, it ‘calls into question most seriously the willingness of the international community to defend universal human rights for everyone.’

‘At least one million Uyghur and other Muslims in China are incarcerated in prison camps facing starvation, torture, murder, sexual violence, slave labour and forced organ extraction,’ the statement reads. ‘Outside the camps, basic religious freedom is denied. Mosques are destroyed, children are separated from their families, and acts as simple as owning a Holy Quran, praying or fasting can result in arrest.’

The faith leaders also note how China has set up the ‘world’s most intrusive surveillance state’ and has used it to carry out ‘a campaign of forced sterilization and birth prevention targeting at least 80% of Uyghur women of childbearing age,’ an action that could constitute genocide, according to the 1948 Genocide Convention…”